Durban - For Durban residents, stopping at a traffic light brings about feelings of anxiety (I speak for myself as well). It could be because we worry about being hijacked or robbed.
You will also be visited by a range of people, either begging or selling phone chargers and licence disc holders for your car.
But what you will also notice, is the endless amount of adverts for penis enlargement and ‘safe abortion’ clinics.
From bringing back lost lovers to sorting out your financial problems, the people behind these adverts claim to have the answer to almost everything.
Firstly, all of these adverts are put up illegally, according to a City representative who works in the CBD, Hosen Moola.
Secondly, the moment these illegal adverts are removed, new ones pop up overnight, kind of like when you cut the head of a three-headed hydra.
There is a designated team of around 40 people who work in the Durban CBD, a place that is overwhelmed with these types of adverts, to remove them from light poles, electricity boxes, bus stops and wherever else they are.
Moola, from the area based management programme within the Municipality, says the team goes out daily to remove the adverts that are plastered with a stubborn adhesive, all over the CBD.
Moola also led the City’s clean-up campaign for the Inner City region.
“What the teams do is go out into the CBD, where a lot of these illegal stickers are put up. Now when we talk about illegal stickers, I’m referring to the safe abortions, penis enlargement and all those others.
“It is also stickers for matric and other schools and institutions that put up these stickers and deface our city.
“They go out on a daily basis and remove them from light poles, pillars and wherever they are stuck on.
“But you must remember these syndicates put up these adverts faster than we can take them down,” Moola said.
Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Moola, together with various government entities, managed to track down an illegal abortion clinic in the CBD using the adverts.
The clinic was tracked down to Dr Pixley Kaseme Street, formerly West Street.
It was found that the clinic was being operated by a couple, a Ugandan-born teacher, Ahmed Katabazi and his South African wife, Buyisiwe Sosibo, who were sentenced to five years behind bars for contravening the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act.
The court also found that the couple benefited financially through their illegal abortion clinic.
Moola said that they hope to make more arrests like these in the future, adding that one of the main reasons they decided to pursue the case was because of how many foetuses they found dumped in the area.
On Wednesday, IOL reached out to a number that was displayed on an advert, claiming they could “bring back lost lovers in 1 hour”, as well as solve financial problems.
We pretended to be a client in need of their services.
A lady answered the phone, saying her name was “Razaka”.
Razaka told us about the services they offer and where the business is located and said that “the uncle will help with lost lovers”.
She said that everything is “safe” and that we “shouldn't worry”.
The lady told us to come to the address which she provided to find out more about their services.
IOL